I didn't think of his screens as a step toward due diligence -- I thought he was trying to make the BMW method closer to a form of mechanical investing .... I think of due diligence as delving more into the discursive story and facts that might lie behind the numerical data of the screens.

The screens provided a lot of proprietary information which was hard, or impossible, to access unless you had subscriptions to Value Line and Morningstar, all neatly collated and organized. If you took the time to understand and make sense of the information it was a big step towards whittling down a long list of candidates that merited further investigation. 'Nothing mechanical about it unless you thought you were supposed to buy the top stocks of every screen! —Which, of course, you were not.

I subscribe to Value Line, but appreciated the Morningstar data, much of which I didn't have ready access to. Regardless, without further investigation and thought, the screens weren't intended as a list of stock recommendations. But, I'm speaking out of turn, only JackCade can tell you for sure what he had in mind :)

Each to his own. I subscribe to Value Line mainly for the neatly formated and chronological data. I ignore their screens and usually only give a passing thought to the analysts' commentaries on individual stocks. Everyone has their priorities and ways of interpreting and using resources.